Clinton County Coronavirus Case (3-23-20)

Clinton County Coronavirus Case (3-23-20)

The number of coronavirus cases continue to grow both statewide, nationally and internationally, more rural areas are also getting hit with covid-19.

Missouri's clinton county recorded its first confirmed case of the coronavirus last night.

As of this afternoon, the total number of cases statewide is now 183.

Kq2's alan van zandt talked with clinton county's health department officials today about this most recent case.

Thanks jodie, behind me you can see the missouri map of confirmed coronavirus cases -- there are more obviously in st.

Louis, kansas city, the coumbia/jopline area and down south in springfireld and joplin.

But as you can see, more of these more rural counties are starting to see cases, and that's what happened in clinton county -- about an hour and a half southeast of kansas city.

Their case involves a clinton county man his 40s.

He started developing symptoms last week -- he was tested for the coronavirus and then the results came back positive sunday.

His symptoms have remained minor and he has not needed to be hospitalized and is self quarantining at home.

What raises concern for the area health officials there is that this man had not been traveling at all.and say he contracted the virus from inside the community..

That's why health experts say social distancing is just as necessary in rural communities as it is in the bigger cities.

(sot ) the clinton county health dept administrator says increased access to testing is still a challenge.

He says additional coronavirus patients needing hospital care will stress both urban and rural healthcare providers.if you'd like to go online to look at the latest statewide coronavirus statistics, you can go to this story on our website at kq2.com reporting in studio, alan van zandt,